Top Tweets for #5InLondon

Sinner is an amazing tennis phenom, on his way to possibly becoming one of the all-time greats. There’s absolutely no denying that. But there’s also something else that’s undeniable. He’s not marketable. Some people have It. Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer, to a lesser extent Novak Djokovic (those of us who’ve been following him from the start know that he had to grow into It), Bjorn Borg, Johnny Mac, Carlos Alcaraz, Jimmy Connors, Marat Safin… I could go on but you get the idea. These guys ooze charisma, personality, flair, coolness, swagger, aura.. they have It, or they earned It (like Nole). Jannik Sinner doesn’t have It. He just doesn’t. Maybe he’ll grow into the role of The Man like Novak, but so far — it’s tough. He’s the socially awkward introvert who is forced to be marketed and propped up because he’s so undeniably brilliant at playing tennis, but you can just feel it’s forced. None of the tennis media have the courage to admit this of course, so it’s a taboo subject that no one wants to grapple with. Which only makes it worse because how will he grow into It? Novak at least had the media against him and he ended up savoring the villain role after that phase of wanting praise passed and that’s when he became The Man. But how will Sinner learn and grow into a charismatic personality if the tennis media coddles him all the time? For the sake of the game, I hope he grows into the role.